Medical Physics and Its Applications

Introduction

Recently, radiation exposure has produced health hazards, especially for healthcare workers and patients. The statistics and results of the exposure study on humans are surprising and alarming. To overcome this, a range of radiation measuring devices have been implemented. A telemonitoring technique is used to monitor the absorbed dose by radiologists. The technology-based innovative solution is being investigated as discussed by William R. Hendee and E. Russell Ritenour (2002) to ameliorate the effectiveness in the measurement of doses. It helps to escalate the independence of radiologists and empower them to provide quality treatment to the patient. The objective of this chapter “Medical Physics and its application” is to review various performance parameters in healthcare as listed:

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  Deployment of a medical device with the physics of sound

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  Heat as background physics in the deployment of a medical device

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  Ultrasound Effects in COVID-19 Infected Patients

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  Ionizing and non-ionizing radiation's effects on the human body

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  Analyze the production of isotopes for radioactivity

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  The need to detect the presence of ionizing radiation in radiation workers

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  Dosimetry measurements

Understanding electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with tissue are very important for a medical physicist to analyze electrical events within the human body. The author’s concern here is to give insight into non-ionizing radiation and its effects if it interacts with any tissue. The authors intend to provide medical physics content for advancement, opportunities, and practices in telehealth technology. However, the authors have attempted to illustrate the importance of medical physics in the healthcare field for physics and bioengineering students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Nowadays, the use of radioisotopes in the healthcare field for the clinical diagnosis of various diseases has grown quickly. The radionuclide is commonly called radiopharmaceuticals. Usually, it is necessary to emit rays for deeper penetration into the patient. In the late 1930s, the first radioisotope study was carried out to diagnose thyroid disease using Iodine. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. In the latter part of this section, the author gives a general description of radioisotope production and the measurement of radiation using dosimeters. Radioisotopes can be used to diagnose abnormalities at various stages. Labeling the material with a suitable radioisotope to produce a radiotracer is very important for acquiring the final result in the form of an image, and finally, interpretation is done.

Background

In the real world, there are two types of radiation that human beings may interact with: ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation. The effect of ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation on human tissue varies depending on radiation propagation. In the electromagnetic spectrum, if humans are exposed to ionizing radiation for a longer period, it leads to health hazards. But there is a hidden impact on non-ionizing radiation also, based on the frequency of the radiation. The effects of low frequency and high frequency on non-ionizing radiation are very important for aspects concerning the patient safety. Healthcare workers and biomedical device designers should understand the physics behind each ontological device that exposes radiation to the patient, so they may use it to gain insight into the performance of the system. Recently, game-based audiometers, Ultrasound Doppler, Thermography, a dosimeter, and radionuclide generator have turned out to be promising Medical Physics applications used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, sustaining motivation, and reaching healthcare goals to improve the quality of life of patients. In the context of a better understanding of physics, the authors elaborate more in this chapter.